Dear Rouleurs,
It has been a while since MMT posted a good cycling infographic. Happily, MMT stumbled across one, yesterday, in the FLAB group on Facebook. Some FLABer must have seen it on Twitter. As a happy plagiarist, MMT provides a link to the original content here Copenhagen Cycling Signals. MMT particularly likes the disapproval and bike stolen signals.
Until next time, ride safe.
MMT.
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Dear Roulers,
Way back in 2015, I stumbled across a series of cartoons by a very funny cyclist called Dave Walker here’s the link. Mr Walker has been very busy and published a book of his work. As means of avoiding a law suit for plagiarism, this blog entry is a shameless plug for his book. Now depending on how ‘old school’ you are, you can either walk into your nearest bookstore and take pot luck or find it on Amazon.
Now the reason for the plug. I was walking down the stairs to my employer’s locker room, when I passed a fellow MAMIL going out for a run. No big deal, except for the really suspect choice of tight lycra shorts and top. Most runners I know tend to go for the light weight short and tank top combination. The choice of clothing was not helped by the MAMIL’s middle age spread, which MMT can happily report was significantly worse than his own.
Strictly speaking, MMT is throwing stones inside the glass house here and MMT is not wishing this runner into an early grave either. This MAMIL should be wholeheartedly applauded for his endeavours. Nevertheless, it wasn’t a great look. Possibly a Rocky style tracksuit may have been more flattering. However, it was this chance encounter that made me think of Mr Walker’s take on the inappropriate wearing of lyrca.
MMT says ‘chapeau’ Mr Walker. MMT adds that lyrca should never worn on public transport, unless its accompanied by a bicycle. Similarly, any male tendency to ‘spreading’ should be resisted.
Until next time, ride safe,
Marv
Dear Rouleurs,
I’ve been blessed with a few quiet minutes to knock another blog for December. Given that’s its nearly Christmas and I’m about to receive an early and very special delivery from Santa, it seemed like a good idea to put together a bicycle related montage. So here’s a bunch of random photos and graphics pilfered from the plagiarist’s greatest resource… the Internet.
 Noooo…this will not happen while I’m not holiday. |
 Its so ugly and wrong, that I’m surprised my wife hasn’t given me one of these jerseys. |
 Creative use of presumably unwanted…not stolen bicycles. |
 It seems to me both weird and wonderful that a nation like Japan would embrace Santa and bicycling, let alone put them together. |
 This one reminds me of the new Campag chain ring I put on my bike back in February. |
 I wish I could find out who created this infographic so I could give them credit. |
I will be posting photos of my special delivery from Santa later this week. Until then ride safe.
Marv
Dear Rouleurs,
Seriously how good was this year’s Tour De France?? It had all kinds of thrills and spills. I never thought I would see Mark Cavenish win another spirit stage, let alone four or Michael Matthews win his first or see Chris Froome running up Mont Ventoux because some motorcycle camera man collided with him and broke his bike. I’ll have to write a proper blog about this stuff. However, MMT will start with the less fashionable analysis first.
As a perennial back marker in any peloton on Beach Road, I feel it is necessary to celebrate the bottom ten finishers of the Tour De France. Lets face it. Finishing the TDF is an incredible athletic achievement in its own right. So this report will be provided in two blogs. The first will present analysis about those riders who didn’t finish the race. The second will assess the last ten that did.
So of the original 198 riders that left the Grande Departee, 22 didn’t make it all the way through to Paris. Some left due to injury eg Alberto Contador and Simon Gerrans. Others left to complete their preparation for the Olympic Games in Rio, in about 2 weeks time. This is who they were, in order of abandonment:
| 1 | MORKOV Michael | KATUSHA | Denmark |
| 2 | PINEAU Cedric | FDJ | France |
| 3 | LADAGNOUS Matthieu | FDJ | France |
| 4 | RENSHAW Mark | DIMENSION DATA | Australia |
| 5 | CONTADOR Alberto | TINKOFF | Spain |
| 6 | LANGEVELD Sebastian | CANNONDALE-DRAPAC | Netherlands |
| 7 | TULIK ANGÉLO | DIRECT ENERGIE | France |
| 8 | VAN DEN BROECK Jurgen | KATUSHA | Belgium |
| 9 | GERRANS Simon | ORICA-BIKEEXCHANGE | Australia |
| 10 | PINOT Thibaut | FDJ | France |
| 11 | THEUNS Edward | TREK-SEGAFREDO | Belgium |
| 12 | BRESCHEL Matti | CANNONDALE-DRAPAC | Denmark |
| 13 | FRANK Mathias | IAM CYCLING | Switzerland |
| 14 | DEBUSSCHERE Jens | LOTTO SOUDAL | Belgium |
| 15 | HERRADA Jesús | MOVISTAR | Spain |
| 16 | BOZIC Borut | COFIDIS, SOLUTIONS CREDITS | Slovenina |
| 17 | CAVENDISH Mark | DIMENSION DATA | Great Britan |
| 18 | DENNIS Rohan | BMC RACING | Australia |
| 19 | IZAGUIRRE Gorka | MOVISTAR | Spain |
| 20 | NAVARRO Daniel | COFIDIS, SOLUTIONS CREDITS | Spain |
| 21 | DUMOULIN Tom | TEAM GIANT – ALPECIN | Netherlands |
| 22 | MARTIN Tony | ETIXX – QUICK STEP | Germany |
Now MMT has been espousing the merits of infographics to communicate to the attention challenged Gen-Y. So MMT has tried his hand at a few pretty graphs to tell the story of these 22 riders. So on to the first infographic, which captures when riders decided enough was enough.
Rider abandonment by Stage TDF 2016
There some big name casualties none more than Alberto Contador and the seemingly cursed Simon Gerrans. Mark Cavendish managed to win with out Mark Renshaw. Tony Martin must have qualified for some kind of award for failing to finish the last stage on the Champs Elysses. What was remarkable, that no abandoned in the first week. This is the first time in the history of the TDF that has occurred. Onto the second infographic, abandonments by nationality.
Rider abandonment by Nationality TDF 2016
This is actually quite intriguing and shows how that the more strongly represented nations suffered from more abandonment, mainly from riders leaving early to complete their Olympic preparations either for track or road events. No riders from the ‘long tail’ of the graph abandoned. I note that 33% of Australians abandoned the race. On the final infographic abandonment by Team.
Rider abandonment by Team TDF 2016
Ignoring injuries, it becomes pretty clear that stronger teams tend to finish with all their riders. Weaker teams lose riders regularly, usually through the mountains. It’s remarkable that 6 of the 22 teams didn’t lose a single rider. It also highlights why Team Sky has become so dominant over the last 5 years.
I’ll continue on in this theme in the next blog race for the lantern rouge.
Until then, ride safe
Marv
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